“There.” I pointed down, and Trix murmured instructions told the wyrm to fly low enough for us to see the pile of upturned earth and metal. The illusion must still be in place over the rebuilt house, but I didn’t see Lex… or Adair, either.
“Looks abandoned,” said Trix.
“There’s a house down there covered with an illusion spell.” I indicated the spot below the chunk of metal sticking out of the ruined ground. “And there’s the mine where they get the material for their cantrips.”
A few miles west of the estate, I spotted an odd flickering across the air. Not a node, though it looked similar… and suspicious.
“What’s that?” asked Trix, pointing directly at the flickering lights playing across the air.
“An illusion spell, I think,” I said. “Let’s see what they’re hiding down there.”
We flew closer, past the node and towards the darkened pillar of the citadel among the ruined town. I couldn’t help thinking of the people who’d lived there, before the war. Before the Family had killed them.
A crack appeared in the illusion spell, and I glimpsed a large structure below, shaped like one of Arcadia’s warehouses.
I leaned forward. “I think we’ve found where they’re manufacturing those cantrips.”
“Bastards,” said Miles. “Wanna blow that place sky-high?”
I nodded to Trix. “Can you fly us lower?”
As we dropped in the air, something heavy slammed into the wyrm, which screeched in pain. I clung on tight as we spun out of control. A bolt of light shone over the wasteland, and my stomach dropped as I realised the citadel was glowing, like the one in Elysium. The wyrm cringed away from the light, tilting sideways in the air.
I clung to its back, but my grip slipped, and I tumbled into empty air as we plummeted towards the earth.
21
I slammed into the ground, hard. I lay there for a moment, dazed, my head spinning. From the splintering pain in my chest, I’d cracked a few ribs, but I’d have to deal with the pain later.
“Miles?” I struggled upright, but the others were nowhere in sight. The wyrm must have crash-landed somewhere, too, because I didn’t see its sinuous shape in the sky. All I could see was the flickering outline of the warehouse… and ruined houses on either side of me.
I pushed to my feet, biting pack a gasp of pain, and bone crunched beneath my feet. I recoiled, realising I’d landed on a skeleton buried in the remains of a collapsed house. Elf or human, I didn’t know. Tears burned my eyes. I blinked them away and walked on towards the flickering light. If the warehouse contained the cure, I’d snag it. Even if it didn’t, it was past time I stopped the Family’s new operation in its tracks. This must be where they were manufacturing the instruments of death they’d unleashed on Elysium.
I slowed my pace as I neared the warehouse, yet I didn’t see anyone guarding the doors. I reached the entrance and peered inside.
Horror struck me like the force of a blow. Inside the warehouse, a large number of bodies littered the ground, all wearing the same drab grey clothing. Golden cantrips lay among them, each of them blank.
I pressed a hand to my mouth. The people who’d been carving the cantrips were dead. And from the look of things, they’d been killed by their own cantrips. I looked around, for any signs of a living person who might offer an explanation, and movement pinged on my vision.
One person stood among the dead, unmistakably alive. I approached him, my throat closing up. “You.”
Shawn the spirit mage approached me, his eyes alight with malice. “I wondered if I’d run into you or Miles first.”
“You got out of jail,” I said.
“The vampires let their security slip,” he said. “They aren’t the only ones, either. I’m here to deliver you to your family.”
“Did you kill all those people?” Anger rose inside me like a tidal wave. “Did you use the cantrips against them?”
“They’d outlived their usefulness,” he said. “Problem with most people is that they’re only too willing to work for you as long as you give them what they want. But there’s always a small number who insist on asking for more than we’re willing to give. So it was simpler to take them down. They’ve fulfilled their purpose, after all.”
“You’re one sick bastard,” I said.
I was almost certain he’d been fed that line by Adair… which meant the odds were high that my brother was somewhere nearby, too.
“I’m on the winning team,” he said. “Like that family of yours. You know, they’re still willing to give you another chance, even after everything you did. Can you believe it?”
“So you broke out of jail to come back to the Family?” I raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t know you cared that much for them. I thought you’d be fighting alongside Hawker at the citadel with the other spirit mages. Or did you miss your chance to get in there before they locked the doors?”
“I was more interested in finding your friend Miles,” he commented. “I knew the two of you would be together, and that you’d be looking for a way to stop the virus from spreading. So I came here to wait.”
“It’d have been awkward if I’d never showed up, wouldn’t it?” The guy seemed to be operating according to his own agenda, but there was no way he’d reached this place without running into at least one of the Family. He wouldn’t have killed their people without their say-so, as much as he seemed to enjoy pretending to be acting alone.
I heard a rustling sound behind him, and trod forward, trying to see who else might be there. Adair?
In a blur of movement, Trix appeared, leaping at Shawn from behind. He startled, tipping over, as the elf slammed his head into the floor.
“You killed them!” he said. “You killed the elves.”
My mouth fell open, and I looked more closely at the bodies on the warehouse floor. Some of them were elves, as well as humans. Where had he captured them from?
Shawn’s hands lit up with spirit magic and he pushed Trix off him. I ran up to help him, the best I could with the broken ribs, and shot a fireball at him. He deflected with a blast of spirit magic, and the two attacks rattled the walls of the warehouse. The place wouldn’t stay standing for long, but it’d already served its purpose in the Family’s eyes.
Just like the people inside it.
Anger clenched my hands and I fired off another ball of flame, pivoting behind Shawn. The next fireball caught him in the small of his back, while Trix gave him an uppercut to the jaw which sent him sprawling onto the ground.
“Good punch,” I said to the elf. “Where’s the wyrm?”
“I think it crash-landed,” he said. “It’ll be dazed, but it should recover soon.”
“How did you control it like that?” I asked, unable to help myself.
“Haven’t you ever learned how to use elf magic?” he said.
“No,” I said. “It’s not like I ever had much contact with other elves.”
“Oh,” he said. “That’s a shame. I can teach you, if you like.”
The offer took me off guard. I’d always looked like an elf, but I’d assumed my mage powers were all I’d had. Yet my resistance to death hadn’t come from nowhere.
“I’d like that,” I said. “Once we’re out of here. Have you seen Miles?”
“No,” said Trix. “This place… it gives me a bad feeling.”
“Yeah, me too,” I said. “I think Adair might have the cure. It’s not in the warehouse, but someone came here and ordered everyone to die, and I don’t think it was Shawn.”
Unless they’d been operating on a previously given instruction, it would have been Adair’s persuasive magic which had forced them to end their lives. The Family were one step ahead of me, as per usual.
“Who’s Adair?” asked Trix.
“My brother… well, not by blood,” I clarified. “Adair… he’s half elf, like me, except not nice in the slightest.”
That was putting it mildly.
“Oh, that’s sad,
” he said. “I don’t have any family left.”
My heart clenched. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologising?”
Because my family might have killed yours. But I didn’t know for sure, and now wasn’t the time for that conversation. Sudden movement came from behind us, and we both turned around as Shawn rose to his feet, his gaze strangely blank.
“What the—?”
That’s when the other fallen bodies in the warehouse climbed upright as though propelled by an invisible force. In unison, every single one of them turned in our direction.
“Oh, shit,” I said.
I backed up. So did Trix. While both of us had the advantage of enhanced speed, Miles didn’t, and he might be anywhere down here, vulnerable to getting trampled. Or worse, in the hands of the person who was controlling them.
Lex. Her power afforded her control over the dead as well as the living. I hadn’t seen her use it for a long time, but nobody else could be responsible.
The Family had already taken one friend from me. I wouldn’t let them take another. Especially Miles.
“Run,” I told Trix. “Go ahead. Keep an eye out for Miles. I’ll take care of Shawn.”
He wasn’t dead, and for all I knew, he’d regain consciousness any second now. I’d rather put him down permanently first. Not that that would stop Lex’s army of zombies, but even an elf would have trouble handling her, with or without Adair fighting at her side.
“I won’t run,” he said. “I’m going to call the wyrm back, but it might be a little loud. Should I?”
“I’m all out of better ideas,” I said. “All right.”
He let out a whistle, loud and shrill. I all but jumped out of my skin, not expecting the sudden noise, yet no wyrm appeared.
“Trix, I don’t think the wyrm’s listening to you.”
“Huh.” His brow wrinkled. “That should have worked.”
The bodies began to walk again, feet dragging on the battered ground. “You know what, let’s use my idea and run instead.”
As we did so, I shot a fireball over my shoulder to slow some of them down. We cleared the rise of a small hill—and stopped abruptly at the sight of Adair standing in the shadow of a large coiled shape, wearing a lazy smile. The wyrm curled up at his back, its jaws closed around Miles from behind.
22
I faced my brother. “Let him go.”
The wyrm kept a firm grip on Miles, while Trix halted, staring up at him.
“Stop,” Adair said, and Shawn’s unconscious body skidded to a halt behind us. The others, however, kept on moving, zombie-style. Lex was somewhere nearby, all right, but had declined to show her face. Shawn and Adair were quite enough to deal with on their own, though. Not to mention the wyrm.
“What do you want from me?” I demanded. “Where’s Lex?”
“She has important business to deal with in Elysium.”
“She isn’t here?” It didn’t take a genius to figure out that she’d gone after the Houses. Or what was left of them.
Miles, meanwhile, remained stuck in the monster’s mouth, unable to move. I kept one eye on him as I approached my brother. “So she left you here alone. Again.”
“This time you won’t beat me,” he said. “You’ll see there’s no other option but to join me.”
“Someday you’ll take a hint,” I replied. “I wouldn’t join you if you paid me.”
“But would you if it meant saving your friend?” he said.
Dammit. “Let him go. He’s not part of the deal.”
“We don’t have a deal,” he said. “And since that other traitorous little friend of yours is dead—”
Fire punched from my fist, right at his face. He barely got a yelp out before he fell flat on his back. The wyrm growled, keeping its jaws locked around Miles’s body, but its movements were slow, reluctant. Maybe Trix had had it right. The beast didn’t want to hurt him.
Adair climbed to his feet, spitting out curses. “Attacking me won’t help you. Your friend is doomed and so are those spirit mage allies of yours back in Elysium.”
Miles stiffened, but he was still unable to move without ending up impaled on the wyrm’s teeth. “Is that what Lex is doing? Or is that a lie she told you to get you out of the way?”
“She has the cure,” he said, with a grin. “And she’s taking it to Elysium right now to offer to the Houses in exchange for their cooperation.”
Oh, Elements. So that was their plan—bribe the Houses into taking their side. It might well work, too, with no other cure within sight and the Order on the side of the enemy. Meanwhile, our own side was looking pretty damn sparse. In fact, I couldn’t even see Trix anywhere. I wouldn’t expect him to run off, but I didn’t blame him if he had, considering the army of zombies drawing closer to us by the second.
Behind Adair, the air shimmered with an odd light. Is that another illusion?
It hadn’t been there before, so it wasn’t a cantrip, surely. A gasp lodged in my throat as I made out the shapes of a dozen tiny humanoid faces among the lights. The sprites we’d freed from the citadel. Trix popped up behind them, unseen by my brother. Thanks, Trix.
Adair tilted his head. “Well? Going to agree to join me?”
“I’d rather eat dirt.” I gave a slight nod to Trix, a signal to attack.
At once, the sprites moved in and swarmed over Adair, and he yelped as a conflagration of elemental magic hit him at once: earth, air, fire, water. Even the wyrm cringed out of the way, its maw opening wide enough for Miles to lunge for freedom. Meanwhile, Trix ran over to join us.
“Thanks,” I said to the elf. “Where on earth did you find all those sprites?”
“They were hiding among the ruins,” he said. “They said you helped free them.”
“We did.” I watched with satisfaction for a moment as Adair struggled to swat them away, then my gaze found the approaching zombies. “We should go before those guys catch up.”
“Agreed.” Miles eyed the wyrm, while Trix approached it from the side.
“You okay?” I asked Miles.
“I’m covered in slobber, but I’ll live.” He tensed when the wyrm moved, but it didn’t attack.
At Trix’s instructions, the beast lowered its head, and we climbed onto its back.
“Get back here!” Adair snapped, but even he couldn’t mind-control an entire flock of sprites and a wyrm all at once.
The wyrm took to the sky, just as a bolt of light shot up behind us. I twisted around, seeing the citadel in the wasteland igniting.
“What’s going on over there?” I said. “That place can’t still be active now the sprites are free.”
“Unless Hawker got in there and fixed the transporter,” added Miles. “Or Shawn. Dickhead’s been out here for a while.”
Not to mention Adair. The wyrm flew more slowly than before, and if Adair got away from those sprites, he’d catch up to us, no problem. We needed to get to Elysium and find Lex and the cure before it was too late. If she’d manipulated the Houses into pledging their loyalty to her in exchange for ridding the city of those cantrips, the Family would have more power than they’d ever had before.
“Speaking of Shawn, didn’t you want to finish him off?” I said.
“Nah, he’s not worth the effort,” Miles said. “Why’d they kill off the people in the warehouse?”
“Because they already fulfilled their purpose.” A lump grew in my throat. “They created those cantrips to spread the virus around the city, and now the Family has the only cure.”
We flew low over the rooftops of Elysium, where I spotted a flash of red moving among the houses. Lex. I’d know that bright dress of hers anywhere. It might’ve surprised me to see her moving on foot, but she had no need to fear an attack. Nothing could touch her.
“That’s her?” said Miles, leaning over my shoulder.
“I have to face her alone,” I said. “If you can bring backup, though, it’d be appreciated.”
“Bria, yo
u can’t go down there alone.”
“I won’t watch you die.” Watching the wyrm bite into him had been bad enough. I wouldn’t lose anyone else today. “Besides, she won’t kill me. She can’t.”
“She can still make you into her puppet.”
“Not as effectively as Adair,” I said. “Also, she doesn’t know we have a few hundred sprites on our side. If you can find a way to get them to come and help, I can stall her until then. The important part is getting the cure. I can hold out until then.”
“I hope you’re right,” said Miles.
“Okay… we’re going down.” Trix steered the wyrm lower, and I leaned over the edge until Lex looked up and saw me. I gave a little wave, to be rewarded by her expression of incredulity.
Without taking my eyes off her, I jumped down from the wyrm’s back and landed in front of her. “So you have the cure, do you?”
“Bria,” she said. “I’m glad you came to see me. I was afraid you were going to run again.”
“You’re messed up,” I said. “Where is the cure, then?”
“Roth has it,” she replied. “When he delivers it to the Houses, he and I will be heroes.”
“You’re the one who unleashed the viral cantrips to begin with!” I said, my heart sinking hard. He has it. He’s way ahead of us. “You can’t rewrite history.”
“Can’t we?” she said softly.
A spasm of anger shook me. They could do exactly that. They’d even rewritten my history, erasing all traces of where I’d truly come from before they’d got their claws in my life.
“I know about what you did to the elves,” I said. “You can’t call yourselves heroes after you burned down their homes and helped the mages destroy what was left of them.”
“What does it matter?” she said. “They’re ancient history.”
“No, they aren’t,” I said. “Not as long as I’m here.”
“You’re no elf,” she said. “You don’t even remember where you came from.”
House of Fire (Parallel Magic Book 2) Page 21